Rob Jennings

Comments:

• I do agree there has been some lifestyle creep in expectations over the years. But I'm not sure that is a bad thing. It seems this post touched a nerve-as Quinn notes, it's election season. It's surely a coincidence that his 2 posts this week were pro-billionaire and questioning government support from a presidential candidate as a lead-in.

  Post: How did it all work for us? Why not now?

  Link to comment from September 28, 2024

• There are several risks to consider for mitigation in retirement including longevity, sequence, inflation, market and health shocks, for example. The financial press will talk about SoRR generally about 5-10 years into retirement but who knows if that applies to one's personal situation. In our case, our plan includes allocation to a good chunk of guaranteed, low risk income throughout retirement which also addresses a number of retirement risks. Good luck.

  Post: Sequence of Return Risk

  Link to comment from September 28, 2024

• Mike Piper has a nice free calculator on open social security. This doc also a calculator and a blog post on the topic. If you search on Social Security bend points, you'll have a treasure trove of minutia. Social Security & Early Retirement 2024: Know Your Bend Points! - Physician on FIRE. As Jonathan mentions, it seems a key bend point is around 20 years of paying in.

  Post: How might early retirement at say age 55 affect your FRA SS benefits?

  Link to comment from September 28, 2024

• Got the flu in one arm and Covid in the other-just like last year-2 weeks ago. I tolerate them pretty well with a temporary sore arm from the Covid. Also like last year, my wife spaced them out 2 weeks. We got juiced a bit earlier than what I would consider ideal as we have travel coming up.

  Post: Jabs Anyone?

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• Great to see a fresh topic raised from Quinn :) In addition to your list and more income with a COLA (added in the comments..) I'd add both more relative guaranteed income (SS is a great annuity with a COLA-hard to find..) for an income floor and that a delay strategy can allow more time for Roth conversions in a coordinated retirement plan.

  Post: Quinn asks himself, Is delaying Social Security to age 70 the right decision?

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• My wife is with Elaine and Im with you-I mostly cannot be bothered and don't scrutinize my receipts (as my wife diligently does). Here our little recent retail story: Last week I was with my wife shopping (not my favorite activity..) and she ordered a bathing suit from a retail store in a mall because the store did not have precisely what she wanted. My wife looked at the receipt like she also does and noticed that the item was correct but the size was not. The clerk said she was unable to cancel the order for delivery to our home and reverse the credit card charges "because the item was from a 3rd party". She said we would need to bring the item back to the store for a refund when we received it. The mall is a 30 minute drive from our home and not on our regular driving routes so this costs time and (gas) money and is inconvenient-we were astounded. As the clerk seemed somewhat inexperienced, we visited a manager who unfortunately reiterated the policy. My wife returned the item and got a refund after it arrived. We then got the inevitable customer service survey in our email. And this time, I could be bothered-I complained about the inconvenience and cost of returning of the item on the principle of it . The manager offered a gift card which I accepted.

  Post: Getting Rolled by Jonathan Clements

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• Good post-and interesting to see a bit of what is going with other folks..We are 68/65, my wife is retired for 7 years and I am W2 retired for 6 years but consulting part-time since. We are: 66% tax-deferred (including recently purchased QLACs..), 22% taxable and 12% tax free. As my consulting work dropped off some this year, I am doing my first Roth conversion-we plan a few more until delayed SS, pensions and deferred comp + RMDs. I did put some in a Roth solo 401k over the last few years and put 8K in a Roth IRA this year trying to build it up a bit. We expect our Roth/tax free bucket percentage to continue to grow over time as it is all stock funds/ETFs and we plan to draw on it last/if needed. It's useful for tax efficiency to have the flexibility to draw on these different buckets.

  Post: What’s your asset breakdown by tax treatment?

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• Well done!! Great article and good to see recognition that implementing a TIPs ladder is not terribly difficult once you arm yourself with a strategy. We have a 10-year rolling TIPs ladder which we replenish annually with whatever is up in a stock/bond ETF mix. The ladder is about half our bond allocation. We don't go beyond 10 years due to duration risk. The TIPs are liability-matched against the gap between projected income and expenses and we always hold them to maturity. Like you, our TIPs are part of our income floor along with delayed SS and pensions which cover all of our expenses, both fixed and discretionary. I really saw the unique value of our TIPs in 2022 when inflation was high and both stocks and bonds were down.

  Post: Laying Down a Floor

  Link to comment from September 14, 2024

• Typically such results look at TIPs funds rather than individual TIPs which can do better when held to maturity

  Post: Laying Down a Floor

  Link to comment from September 14, 2024

• During my annual review in the spring of 2017 my boss, as always, asked about my goals for the following year-I was prepared for the question and told her I planned to retire in 2018-almost a year's notice. We worked out a plan so that I recruited and trained my replacement. During the meeting I raised the question of getting a severance package-as it happened the organization was going through downsizing and I, along with a few others, were able to get a severance-this was in part precipitated by my severance question. The only real downside for me was a bit of "lame-duck" treatment, but that was minor and to some extent, to be expected. I left on good terms and considered myself fortunate.

  Post: How Did You Announce Your Retirement?

  Link to comment from August 28, 2024